Both sides vulnerable. North deals. NORTH S: J 4 2 H: Q 3 D: Q 7 C: A J 10 9 3 2 WEST EAST S: 9 6 5 S: Q 10 8 H: J 9 8 H: K 6 2 D: J 10 9 6 5 D: 8 4 3 2 C: 7 6 C: Q 8 4 SOUTH S: A K 7 3 H: A 10 7 5 4 D: A K C: K 5 NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST Pass Pass 1H Pass 2C Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass Pass Opening Lead: DJ West leads the jack of diamonds. With seven top tricks and sources for the additional tricks, it would appear that this is an easy contract. Entry problems, coupled with honor duplication in the diamond suit, caused declarer to rely on the club finesse, which lost, leading to the defeat of the contract. There are actually two lines that will work for declarer. Both are improvements over the club finesse. The first is very straight forward. Declarer wins the opening lead in hand and plays the king of clubs followed by a small club to the ace. If the queen falls, the hand is essentially over. If the queen does not fall, declarer plays a third round of clubs and discards the remaining high diamond from his hand. The defense cannot pursue diamonds without allowing the queen of diamonds to become an entry to the long clubs. The second line of play is much more obscure but very pretty. Declarer wins the first trick in hand and plays the five of clubs to the jack. If the finesse loses (Could East possibly refuse this trick?), declarer re-gains the lead and uses the king of clubs as an entry to dummy (over taking with the ace), in order to run clubs and secure the contract. If the jack of clubs holds, declarer plays the ace of clubs, smothering the king and then the ten of clubs, discarding the remaining high diamond as before. Remember to take a moment and consider all of your alternatives before committing to a particular line of play. __________________________________________________________________